Biggest Blocker in Building Massive Instagram Following (& How To Avoid It)

June 28, 2018

There is a race on social media to acquire more followers. If you are reading this post, chances are that you somewhere want more followers on Instagram. It could be due to multiple reasons including the need to be popular or simply earning more income by having “influence”. In the last post, I described about the practice buying followers on Social Media. One of the reasons services (that help you buy a lot of followers at a low cost) exist is because of our need to get more followers on our social media channels quickly. They’ve become extremely popular and there is a thriving ecosystem built on the demand of followers (at a low cost). But most of them offer followers that are essentially fake profiles or bots. The entire ecosystem has been built on the back computer generated social media profile that give you a good count of followers but little engagement. If you are among those who want real followers quickly, buying followers from such services will not help you.

Basis my experience on social media and through my interactions with popular and well-known influencers, I’ve come to realize that the only thing that stands between you and massive following is only one thing. It might seem very trivial but there is no such formula that helps you build a massive following quickly (unless you are plain lucky!) But there is one way that can help you (for sure build a good healthy following) that can manifest in to a massive following one day.

Take a moment and think about popular Instagram handles that you follow or who you’ve heard about. Most of them probably didn’t start out thinking “I’m going to be popular” They just set out to showcase their creativity, their knowledge, their skill, and passion and shared what they thought was important. And, by doing that and succeeding, they build a community of people around them who loved their work, shared it with others and helped them build a massive following on Instagram.

To be popular, you need to get rid of this one blocker –Publishing posts to be popular!

Publishing posts on Instagram to be popular or pandering to what you think people will like more is the single biggest blocker in you becoming popular. It will ensure that you will NOT become popular and here’s why.

1. Sub-optimal content

Content or topics, which are popular will lead you to publish images that aren’t your best. To build a following, you need to publish stories that you are good at. You need to showcase your passions, creativity, and skills (esp. if you are an artist). You will only be able to build a strong loyal following by publishing great content (and this will only be It is easy to give in and publish things, which are popular. It is tempting. In the shorter run, it will give you results. But, it will not give you a loyal following that will spread your content and read it for your uniqueness.

Also trying to do things for other people will ensure that 9 out of 10 time you end up posting content that you may not personally believe in or be passionate about. This will lead to you publishing stories that aren’t your best work and hence won’t inspire others.

2. Consistency

Writing on what you think an audience will read or share can lead you positing images, which aren’t consistent. Consistency is critical. People follow you because you bring something unique to the table (and they also like it). Inconsistency in your posts on Instagram is a crime. To build a community of people around your content, you need to be consistent. If you want to be popular, you will need to ignite a thought, inspire people, and be relatable not just with a one-off post. You’ll need to do it consistently. Posting on Instagram, that is aimed at pandering to the popular voice, will only lead to inconsistency in your content as these voices keep on changing.

3. Authenticity

One of the biggest benefits of social media over traditional media is authenticity. Some of the most popular channels on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook or Twitter are authentic. Creating content in an attempt to be popular will lead to publishing posts on Instagram that are not aligned with what you personally believe in. You may come across as in-authentic and in the worst case desperate (to be popular). So don’t do it!

4. Originality

Our creativity is boundless when set free. But when we restrict ourselves to a particular topic that is aimed at a specific goal i.e. being popular, we end up with nothing new. The work to put it simply is at best a good recreation.

As a popular Instagrammer, part of your job is to keep people engaged. A massive audience will only follow you if they find something unique in your approach, your thought, ideas or even your delivery. Publishing content to be popular deviates you from the core content (that made people follow you in the first place).

So don’t publish content for the heck of it.

The higher you want your Instagram following to, the more differentiated your content needs to be. It’s one of the most important things that distinguishes the average from the star Instagrammers.